Home insurance premiums are just one of the factors that affect home affordability. This week, the research firm J.D. Power released a report showing that almost half of homeowners saw their home insurance premiums go up in the last year.

For years, just a third of homeowners were seeing annual premium increases, according to the J.D. Power report’s lead researcher, Craig Martin.

“It jumped after 2021 to 41%, and it's been trending up since then to now our highest level at 47%,” he said.

So, consumers are starting to shop around, Maritn added. And insurers are trying to explain why coverage is more expensive: The cost of construction materials is rising. The same goes for labor. But the big culprit? Climate change.

“Historically, what the insurance company has done is they've relied on past events to help to be indicative of what they should be charging or what risk is in an area,” said Jeremy Porter, who researches climate risk at First Street.

But with more frequent and severe storms, there’ll be more damage to cover.

Porter owns his home on Long Island. His premiums have increased by 20%-30%. His mom lives in Northern Kentucky, “and her premiums are like triple what they were just five or six years ago,” he said, “mainly due to increases in in wind storms and hail storms in the area.”

Homeowners have some options, Porter noted: “The State of Alabama, for instance, has a really, really good incentive program for adding hurricane-resistant roofs to your home.”

And choices like that can reduce insurance costs, he added.